JSCCIB maintains Thailand's economic growth projection at 4-4.5% in 2018

BANGKOK, May 7 (TNA) - The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) has maintained its projection of Thailand's economic growth in 2018 at 4-4.5 per cent, while the country's export growth should stand at 5-8 per cent. Supant Mongkolsuthee, Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), told journalists on Monday that JSCCIB, comprising of FTI, the Board of Trade of Thailand (BTT) and the Thai Bankers' Association, decided at a recent meeting to keep its forecast figures of the national economic growth this year intact. Supant said the JSCCIB meeting also estimated that Thailand's economic growth in the first quarter of 2018 should stand about 4 per cent year-on-year, the same level of the national economic growth in the 4th quarter of last year, cushioned by the country's expanding exports, tourism and industrial production. The FTI chief acknowledged that JSCCIB will keep monitoring the development of domestic investment projects, especially those in the public sector, during the 2nd and the 3rd quarters of this year, as well as the prices of Thai farm products amid slight impacts so far from the Thai government's new daily minimum wage hike as of early last month. Besides, JSCCIB will follow up the direction of the US key interest rate and nuclear projects in Iran, as well as impacts from trade retaliation between the United States and trading partners, all the factors of which could affect the national economic growth rate in 2018. The FTI chief revealed that JSCCIB also proposed that the Thai government limit the proportion of migrant workers only for large-scaled firms, but imposing no limit of the proportion of migrant workers employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to prevent negative impacts on local SMEs from their rising production costs and, probably, reduced production capacity. The recent JSCCIB meeting, meanwhile, agreed to maintain its forecast of Thailand's economic and export growth this year at 4-4.5 per cent and 5-8 per cent respectively, while the country's general inflation should stand around 0.7-1.2 per cent. (TNA)